Broken Lives Are Made New

King Jesus is so good.  He daily amazes us.  We are living around and walking through a lot of brokenness.  People being held together by a string.  Yet, in God’s Kingdom these broken lives are being transformed.  Being renewed.  He makes us new as the song says…as the Bible declares…as we continue to see in our amazing journey with Him as we minister to the families here and preach on the streets of South Central Los Angeles.  

The enemy is persistent and relentless.  Our King is stronger and loving.  Please pray for us and with us for the many broken lives that are being made new.  We can’t share specifics about everyone or everything that is happening, but our Mighty God is doing a great work here in the city that is impacting and shaking up nations and generations.

Youth Ministry

The youth have been doing more and more activities to help build deeper community.  They hiked up to Griffith Observatory just north of downtown LA (pictured above).  The youth also spent one of their Friday night youth groups praying over their schools and praying for one another. 

The Kaleo youth event/dinner that Chad preached at went really well connecting us with other people in the community that need to be ministered to.  (Pictured above and below.)

One of our youth had to be taken into the foster system along with her 7 other siblings.  It was traumatic for the family and we weren’t allowed to see them during this 4 month period.  So we put together a surprise “Welcome Home!” dinner for her at our house and spent time praying protection and blessing over her (Pictured below).  

 

Children’s Ministry:

Fabiola and Lizzie, our lead teachers for the Children’s Ministry, have just concluded Parent Teacher Conferences for all the families of the children we minister to.  These conferences are a wonderful time to connect with parents and communicate and hear the different needs and issues in raising godly children.  Giving a place for parents to open up and be heard as well as lovingly exhorting parents to continue training their children in godliness is already producing some noticeable results.

We also continue providing a Special Training once a month to help inspire vision and provide practical help in the area of children’s ministry.  This month our friend Pastor Josh and his team (see “Outreach” below) spoke life into our teachers and parents helping them realize the value they have in Christ.   Please pray with us that more and more parents would begin volunteering and serving in the various classrooms. 

Men’s Ministry

Thank you for your prayers for the Men’s Retreat.  Everything we asked God for happened.  All the men that are committed to our church went to the retreat and we bonded and pressed into Jesus more than ever.  Over meals and during cabin time we were able to share our lives more with one another and offer camaraderie and prayer to one another. 

 Our core group from Fuente para las Naciones after a morning hike and devotional time. 

 We brought 12 men in total, some were relatives or friends not directly connected to our church. 

 In total there were 350 men in attendance from 34 different churches from Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Bakersfield and Fresno.  It was a great time of worship and teaching. 

 On the last day they called all the pastors up front and had the rest of the guys pray for us – that was encouraging to see our men lifting up prayers of thanksgiving, blessing and help on our behalf. 

 There were some fun bonding activities too apart from the standard (soccer).  There were two types of tug-of-war that helped the men use their manly strength and bond even more.  J

Women’s Ministry: Book Study

Nancy & Erika continue to do a great job leading the women’s book club.  Fabiola is just a participant and coach and is enjoying watching the other women blossom in leadership.  So many deep needs are being addressed in this study and the ladies that still haven’t confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior appear to be getting closer.  Please keep this group in your prayers. 

Outreach with New Song La Grande

Some Highlights:

·         Fellowship – we all got much needed connecting with mature believers that speak our same heart language. 

·         Evangelism—sharing God’s love through prayer and preaching on the street.

·         Growing Hearts—we love to inspire others to allow their hearts to break more for what breaks God’s heart in the many needy areas of inner-city ministry.  

·         Ministry times – there was an amazing amount of strengthening, encouraging and comforting coming out of this group.  The whole church was blessed and encouraged to the extent that their countenance changed.   While all the men were at the Men’s retreat the group helped teach the different classes at church on Sunday.  (Pictured below, our Wednesday night Bible Study)

·         Projects—this group was also able to help do a few projects that we have wanted to work on for some time which frees us up to do more ministry. 

·         Perspective—while you are in the trenches ministering sometimes you don’t have the perspective to see all that God is accomplishing through you.  Having this group come and comment on the huge amount of progress they see in the spiritual maturity of our congregation over the last two years helped open up our eyes and caused us to rejoice with them for what God is doing here through our ministry. 

Please Pray with Us…..

ü  Summer Activities 

Every Tuesday this summer we have planned activities for the children and ladies to connect.  We hope many new neighbors and friends will come out and get connected as well.  They will be having water days, movie nights, picnics, trips to the museums, parks and beach, bake together and all kinds of good relational fun for the women and children.  Pray for a great turnout and for women and children to open up their hearts and lives so ministry can take place during these events. 

ü  Beach Day  June 23

This is an opportunity for our church to bond more in a fun, relaxed setting.  We plan on playing and eating a lot and then having a time for worship and a bonfire at the end of the day.  We are also planning a baptism.  

ü  Worship

We have been working on training more people in leading worship and playing instruments.  One of our thirteen year olds will be playing his guitar during worship with a few others at the end of this month.  Pray that he would continue to be excited and motivated to worship God with his guitar and for others to be blessed and inspired to take steps out of their comfort zone. 

ü  WOW Jam  June 30

We are in our third year of this mega-outreach.  This year we’re moving it to the near side of the park so that everyone will be able to see our church building from the event.  We baptize immediately after the preaching and altar call.  We anticipate several thousand people to attend this event.  Pray through all the details and most importantly for FRUIT that would REMAIN.

ü  Summer Camps

o   1^st – 3^rd Grade  July 3-6

o   4^th – 6^th Grade  July 8-13

o   7^th – 8^th Grade  July 22-27

o   High School  July 29-Aug. 3

o   Special Needs Camp 7/29-8/3

o   Sport’s Day Camp Jul.30-Aug.3

Thanks for your partnership in this ministry where together we get to bring broken lives to God and watch Him make them new!

Chad & Fabiola